What's Cooking?
by Kat Spencer
Summary: Summary: Jack and Sam are making breakfast at the cabin, they’ve got more cooking than just pancakes and eggs! SJ


Title: What's Cooking?  
Author: Kat Spencer Summary: Jack and Sam are making breakfast at the cabin, they've got more cooking than just pancakes and eggs!  
Rating: PG-13 for language

A/N: This is an answer to a fic challenge brought up in the Sam/Jack ship family discussion thread on GW. It was presented by CountryJoy, I hope they and everyone else enjoys!

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter smiled as she walked into Jack's kitchen. She and 'The Boys' were staying at the cabin for a few days, and this marked their first morning there. Jack was making breakfast.

"Need any help?" Her question startled him out of his reverie. 'Speak of the devil…' Jack thought.

"Oh, no, I'm fine, take a seat, we'll be having eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes," Jack told her as he motioned to his small kitchen table.

"No, really, Sir I'd like to help, I could make the pancakes. I can't really go wrong there if I have a recipe to go from."

Her smile was bright, Jack could never say no to that 100-watt smile, she did want to help. Jack smiled back, "I don't know about that, but here's the recipe, you work here, and I'll work here," he told her as he placed the recipe on the opposite counter of where he was working.

"Did you sleep well?" Jack asked as Sam went to the fridge, grabbing the few ingredients she would need from it. She almost ran into Jack, who was on 'her side' getting some salt and pepper.

"Um, pretty good," Sam told him.

Her answer didn't completely satisfy him. There was her dad, Jacob was a wonderful man, he deserved a much longer life; thanks to Selmak, Sam had the chance to say a proper goodbye. Then there was Pete, the sad excuse for a fiancée, though, he knew that wasn't fair. He knew the guy loved her, who wouldn't, was Jack's question. He had tried very hard, with the same results: he loved Samantha Carter. However, he also knew that she needed space. Therefore, Jack gave her that space.

Space. Their whole relationship was filled with space. Between them stretched a wide canyon, it was filled with all the things that they couldn't say to each other. Like, for instance…when she had shown him the ring Pete gave her and asked his advice. What had she wanted to hear? Don't marry him? Quit the Air Force and marry me? No, and besides he would never do such a thing, he loved her so much that he would do nothing to hurt her career. Nothing at all…not even quit himself?

He loved her so much, he just wanted her to be happy. Though, marrying Pete didn't make her happy, Jack guessed. Or they would be married. And she wouldn't be here.

As Jack was lost in his thoughts, Sam was just as lost in her own. Why was this so hard? The space between the two got wider every day. She knew that he was giving her the space that she needed.

Space, that seemed that that's all she got from Jack, space and more space. Though, she couldn't blame anyone, their jobs put that space there for good reason. The frat regs were clear, don't get involved. Easy enough rules to follow, right? Though, sometimes Sam guessed that the heart was hard of hearing. Your heart and your mind were two different entities all together.

One said no, but the other screamed YES! Though, again with the space thing, she knew that some of it was because of her father, but most was because of Pete. It had been several weeks, almost two months. She had been done with Pete way before then, but she held on, hoping that she would learn to be in love with him, she also hoped that the unattainable Jack O'Neill would stop haunting her heart.

Neither of those things happened. She guessed on some level that she loved Pete; how could she not? He had practically worshipped the ground she walked on. Of course not in the way that she loved Jack. Jack was Jack. Pete was Pete.

Jack got it, all of it, knew when she needed her space, time to think, needed to be alone…or a come'ere. Pete was clueless about those things, he didn't understand it; she knew if she had said jump, Pete would have asked how high? He would have done anything on this earth for her. She just couldn't love him in return, not the way that he wanted.

She knew the tension that was there even a few weeks earlier had ceased, but something else seemed to be holding him back. It was this space he thought she needed. It seemed as if at the beginning of the trip they had fallen back into sync with each other, almost immediately, like the trip to the cabin was all that was needed to heal all those wounds that couldn't be discussed. Namely Pete and Kerry.

The two soldiers, lost in their thoughts both turned at the same time and almost collided. "Sorry," they both mumbled. Jack needed some cilantro for his scrambled eggs, while Sam needed the flour and four eggs. Soon enough, items in hand they were lost in their thoughts again.

How do I let him know that enough is enough? I don't want any more space! I want…Jack.

I need a sign, for cryin' out loud! I'm just about ready to build a bridge over the damn canyon, march right up to her, tell her that I'm quitting the air force to marry her, give her children, and make her happy for the rest of my natural life. See how the collected Colonel feels about that…the look on her face it would be…priceless.

Jack! So impossible at times, yet irresistible all at the same time! I hate this unrequited love that I feel for him, I wish I could just tell him. Tell him that when he walked into the briefing room that my heart skipped a beat when I saw him for the first time. Tell him that the months he was stuck in stasis in Antarctica were hell for me. Tell him that he is the only man I dream about. Tell him that some days he's the first thing I think of in the morning or the last thing on my mind at night, right before sleep claims my brain. There were sparks, for cryin' out loud! And there is nothing we can do about them. Nothing Sam? You can quit.

Why does she have to be who she is? Why couldn't she just be a scientist? Like all those other realities, they got to be together. Who's to say that it's what she wants anyway? Am I the man that she'd want to wake up beside for the rest of her life? I'm sure she would get tired of me.

Jack's eggs were almost ready to be put in the skillet, he just needed some of the non-stick spray, it was next to Sam on her counter.

Sam had just cracked two eggs into her batter, needing to dispose of the shells in the trash can, she turned and ran smack into Jack. Which wasn't at all bad, he almost tripped but caught himself on the counter in front of him, Sam's counter. Sam found herself pinned between Jack and the counter.

Jack found that one of his hands had knocked over the bowl with Sam's batter in it, but he didn't care, he was frozen at the sight of her. It wasn't like he hadn't ever seen her before early in the morning without make-up. Not that she wore a lot, but now was different. They were inches apart, their bodies almost touching…her lips.

His lips were so close, though Sam's gaze couldn't be torn from his eyes. His brown eyes pierced her blue and suddenly as if neither of them could take any more of the tension that had once again bubbled between them (though a different kind of tension) there was a frenzied grasping of hair and clothes as the two met, lips frantically trying to win dominance over the others. Sam's hands found the back of Jack's neck, her fingers dug into his hair.

The egg shells that were to be thrown away had found their way into said General's hair. Sam knew that her face and neck were covered in flour. Though none of those things mattered right now, his arms, his hands, his lips mattered. Screw the regs, they needed this.

It was as if they were both apologizing for the things that they shouldn't even have to apologize for, for Pete and Kerry. For all the things they wanted to say, but couldn't, given their ranks.

One would think that breathing in the much needed air, the two airmen would come to their senses, but something stronger than their sense of loyalty to the Air Force was on their minds. Wanting and needing to enjoy this moment alone overpowered and overwhelmed them as they began kissing once more.

It was as if a light went off in both their minds at the same time. They both knew they needed to stop, and as suddenly as it had started, the frenzied make-out session had stopped. They both took deep breaths as they rested their foreheads together. Her arms were resting on his shoulders, his hands loosely around her neck.

"Jack-"

"I'm so glad you didn't use 'sir' just then, Sam. I'm sorry, that shouldn't have happened. I was out of line, regs or no regs, that was out of line," Jack told her as he stepped back, giving her space.

"It wouldn't have been out of line if there were no regs, Jack…this space that you've been giving me, it was nice at the beginning, but now…it just wasn't. Don't be sorry, Jack. I think that's just what we both needed. And now I think I need a shower…I'll be back in about ten minutes to help clean up, you should get a shower too, sorry about the eggs," Sam smiled slightly as her hand found a way back to his face.

"Yeah, sorry about the uh…batter and the flour…and sorry to have put you in this sit-"

"I could have stopped you at any time, Jack…I just didn't want to."

"Yeah, me neither," he said smiling again. "It just can't happen again."

"Leaving it, again?" her blue eyes were searching his, haunting him with her question.

"Sam-"

"Promise me something, Jack."

"Anything."

"Really?"

"I'd promise you the world if I could, Sam."

Sam smiled slightly, somehow she didn't mind that it sounded cliché. "Promise me that this won't be left forever, that our day will come when we don't have to leave it anymore. I don't want to go through life leaving it, Jack. I hope that you don't either."

"Of course I don't, Sam…and I promise you, one day, there will be no more leaving it, okay?"

"Promise?" she asked.

"I promise," he told her as they hugged each other, her chin found his shoulder and he dipped his head and kissed her neck. The two pulled away, Sam giving him another 100-watt smile.

"Okay, well," Sam started out, the two stepped away from each other quickly as they heard Daniel enter the kitchen.

"Hey-" Daniel stopped short as he took in their appearances. He noticed Sam's face was covered in flour and so were Jack's hands that he was desperately wiping on a cup towel.

Daniel's face broke into a smile. "So…what's cooking?" Daniel asked.

Daniel didn't miss Sam's face turning red, nor Jack looking down at the floor.

"Ahh, nothing yet, I need to clean up, I-uh, yeah," Sam said as she exited the kitchen quickly.

"Jack?" Daniel asked.

"Don't ask Daniel. I have to go too," Jack said hastily as he left the kitchen.

Daniel smiled after his two friends as he began to clean up their mess. He knew that something was cooking alright, he just hoped that they got a real chance in the…kitchen.

The END!


End file.
